We Love Fruit!

This Toddler Storytime was presented at Bellevue Public Library on January 29, 2015.

Books:
What Am I? Looking Through Shapes at Apples and Grapes 
by N.N. Charles, illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon

Baby Food by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers 

Songs:

Everybody Say Hello!
(tune: "London Bridge")

Everybody say hello, say hello, say hello,
Everybody say hello, hello Wesley!

(Wesley is my turtle puppet who pops out of my apron pocket whenever we sing this song.  Then he sits quietly on his rock and listens to the stories and sings along with us.  At the end of storytime he says goodbye to the children, gives them high fives, eats pretend food from their hands, blows kisses, and plays hide and seek!)


Apples and Bananas
(a modern classic sung by the beloved singer, Raffi)

I like to eat, eat, eat, apples and bananas.
I like to eat, eat, eat, apples and bananas.

I like to ate, ate, ate, ape-ples and ba-nay-nays...
I like to eat, eat, eat, ee-ples and ba-nee-nees...
I like to ite, ite, ite, i-pples and ba-ni-nis
I like to oat, oat, oat, o-pples and ba-noh-nohs...
I like to oot, oot, oot, oo-pples and ba-noo-noos...




Magic Pre-Sliced Banana Trick
I can't resist sharing this fun trick with children and adults each year during a storytime.
Here is the link to an earlier post which includes a video of my banana "trick"! 



Playtime Activities:

What's in the Green Box?
(tune: "Sally Wore a Red Dress")

What's in the green box,
The green box, the green box?
What's in the green box
For us to play?

Creative Picnic Basket Play:

Fruit Match Activity Sheets:

For children who would benefit from finding the matches between the fruit on the bottom and the fruit along the top.  Children could use a crayon or pencil, or their finger, to draw a line to connect the matches.

For children who would benefit from practice in developing eye-hand coordination. Children could use a crayon or pencil to trace the pre-printed lines connecting the matching fruit.

Rebus Story:  

Children enjoy feeling a sense of ownership!  A rebus story allows the child to contribute key parts of the story by "reading" the pictures!  The adult reads the word, pausing to allow the child to interject the word represented by the picture.  The first few sentences of this story, "So Hungry", (with the child's contributions in parentheses) reads:
"I'm so hungry.  What can I eat?, (Ryan) asked.  Have a (banana) or an (apple), (Mom) said. I'm tired of (bananas and apples, Ryan) said.



Each Toddler Storytime includes activities that support one or more of the five early literacy practices identified as essential in helping your child develop the skills they need before they can learn to read. The five practices – singing, talking, reading, playing and writing –were developed for Every Child Ready to Read®, an initiative of the Association for Library Services for Children (ALSC) and the Public Library Association (PLA).

Every Child Ready to Read^® @ your library^®, PLA and ALSC logos are registered trademarks of the American Library Association and are used with permission.